They could open a house of horrors and charge people to wander around Schenectady at night, that should scare the hell out of them.

New York (CNN) -- A New York company offering tours of Bronx neighborhoods has shut down after officials objected to its advertising that claimed to give visitors "a ride through a real New York City 'ghetto'," according to a statement from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.
The tour's controversial description states that when thinking of the Bronx, people envision when the borough "was notorious for drugs, gangs, crime and murders." It promises to take visitors on a three-hour journey into "this diverse and mysterious borough called the Bronx."
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/23/travel/new-york-bronx-ghetto-tours/index.html

I thought about doing this myself. The tour would go up Crane Street, or "Little Bronx", as I call it. Maybe I could combine it with one of McCheese's tours, to save on gas.
Mont Pleasant is scariest in broad daylight.
DSS doesn't pay any room tax.

Anyone remember the nickname "baby new york" ?

A handful of Schenectady buildings will soon be able to hook into the most efficient heating and cooling system there is downtown: Proctors.

The historic Schenectady theater maintains its own district energy plant at the corner of Clinton and State streets. This plant, with its 250-horsepower boilers and 250-ton steam-absorption chillers, generates hot and cold water, then sends it out through underground pipes to customers along the Proctors block.

On Wednesday, Proctors was awarded $2.9 million in New York State Energy Research and Development Authority funds through the state's third annual Regional Economic Development

Council awards to expand the plant's capacity so it can service other downtown customers. Proctors CEO Philip Morris said he was happy to get the governor's support for the project, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save businesses money.

"To get this support is just huge," he said. "The project revolves around the whole notion of decentralized utilities, which are less susceptible to the sort of calamities you can see happen during major hurricanes. They're cleaner and greener. We estimate that our carbon footprint will be reduced by about 45 pounds per hour by this expansion."

With the expansion, Proctors will be able to get its Mainstage on the cooling system, upgrade the plant equipment to allow for more capacity and get the adjacent Parker Inn and Key Hall on the heating and cooling system. A later phase of the project will include construction of more underground pipes to allow more customers to come on the system down the road.

In a way, Proctors would be building pipes on spec with this last phase. But Morris is confident that his "if you build it, they will come" plan will work out just fine for the cogeneration plant.

For example, he said one place they would direct the pipes is up State Street to the more-than-100-year-old Foster building. That building and several nearby vacant buildings are being cleaned up and renovated by the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority.

"We're not going to send heat to an empty building," said Morris. "But you can be prepared so that when a developer does come in, you have a system ready for them to hook up to. This is just my opinion, but the Foster building is a beautiful building. It's magnificent. I can't imagine why it wouldn't become a very interesting site for somebody to grab up. Metroplex has cleaned it, sealed its windows. It's in beautiful shape. And hopefully the district energy project becomes an added incentive for a developer, because they won't have to spend that extra money for traditional heating and cooling."

Eventually, Morris hopes to get the nearby New York Lottery building and Bow Tie Cinemas on the system. He has had conversations with officials at both buildings, but nothing has come to fruition yet.

Proctors actually tried to get the expansion money four years ago. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., even took a tour of the theater in late 2009 to help secure $900,000 in federal money for the plant, but federal funds were hard to come by at the time and the money never came.

Now that $2.9 million in NYSERDA funds are available, Proctors has to come up with about $800,000 to cover the remaining cost of the project.

The plant currently generates a little more than $1 million in revenue a year, but also costs about $1 million to run. Morris estimated the expansion would bring in about 75 percent more revenue, creating a bit of a surplus.

"But we never did this so it could be a profit center for us," he said. "We did it to guarantee our neighborhood is healthy."

This was in the news before, remember Morris said "we might make a few pennies"? Well, notice the article hear says 1 million in generated revenue, but 1 million to run. What the?
Also, wonderful news, there is a grant, but "Proctors has to come up with about $800,000 to cover the remaining cost of the project." Unbelievable.

It's a tick burrowing in deeper to the free money host. When I first read about the wonders of this power plant thing, I don't remember the part about the cost of running it being equal to the cost of building it. Now, Proctor's just has to "come up with" a paltry $800,000 and they're good to go? Am I reading that correctly?
One thing I know I read correctly is the article about some people just up the road, on Albany Street, trying desperately to bring their street back to something that looks like it belongs in America. I also read that a Senator got us a LOAN, so that we taxpayers could foot the bill for getting some of the more dangerous derelict buildings removed. Yet they continue to brag about how much money is getting funneled into apartheid downtown.

Quoted from Libertarian4life

Proctor's knows that anyone with authority in their name is immune from oversight. They latch on and will never let go. How the hell is a power plant arts related and exempt from taxes?[/b]

Great question. And how is a power plant and catering hall part of their mission statement? Congress should be investigating this non profit. In the end it will be Proctor's
surrounded by rubble. Close on Upper and Lower State. The rape of the County taxpayers continues.

If an entity gets historic preservation funds, and doesn't use them correctly, resulting in demolition, there will also be some group somewhere else trying to save a historic treasure, that did not get funding, resulting in demolition. A ripple effect.